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Date:      Thu, 11 Jan 2001 11:54:11 -0900
From:      Beech Rintoul <akbeech@anchoragerescue.org>
To:        freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Help. /etc/pwd.db.: Permission denied
Message-ID:  <01011111541200.02377@galaxy.anchoragerescue.org>

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----------  Forwarded Message  ----------
Subject: Re: Help. /etc/pwd.db.: Permission denied
Date: Thu, 11 Jan 2001 11:49:33 -0900
From: Beech Rintoul <akbeech@anchoragerescue.org>
To: Eric Long <eric@metrotv.com>


Try this:

boot into single user......

boot:  -s
mount -u /
mount /usr /
passwd root

^D

Hope that helps :)

On Thursday 11 January 2001 11:31, you wrote:
> For some unknown reason, my passwd file got corrupted today.  I found out
> by not being able to su to root.  I can, however, ssh into the box with
> root, so I have root access to make any appropriate changes.
>
> I think I have gone through every FreeBSD related conversation on the web
> that deals with pwd.db, master.passwd, passwd, and spwd.db and still cannot
> figure out how to fix this.
>
> I ran pwd_mkdb -C /etc/passwd and came up with a corrupted line.  It
> happened to be the line in the passwd file that root is defined on.  I have
> restored these files numerous times (pwd_mkdb -p /etc/master.passwd and
> from master.passwd backups) and have been able to correct this corruption.
> pwd_mkdb -C /etc/passwd no longer produces errors, but I still cannot su to
> root, nor can I change passwords on any account.
>
> su'ing to root results in a "Sorry" message even though I am entering the
> correct password.
>
> Here's what happens when I try to change a password:
>
> # passwd
> passwd: error opening database: /etc/pwd.db.: Permission denied
> passwd: /etc/master.passwd: unchanged
> #
>
> I have a few other FreeBSD boxes running and have verified that permissions
> are correct.  To do further tests, I changed all passwd, master.passwd,
> pwd.db, and spwd.db to world read/write to see if I could get around the
> Permission denied message.  It worked...sort of.  I could go through the
> password changing prompts, but after entering the verification of the new
> password, I got another permission denied message for /etc/pw.bleh where
> "bleh" was what seemed to be a few random characters each time I tried
> doing this.
>
> Furthermore, normally when su'ing alread as root, nothing happens.  After
> the passwd file problems (but even now that it's fixed) I get this:
>
> # su
> su: setgroups: Operation not permitted
> su: Jan 11 15:23:33 boxname su: initgroups(root,0): Operation not permitted
> setusercontext: Operation not permitted
> #
>
>
> My permissions are correct, I have verified this by comparing them to other
> working FreeBSD boxes I run.  My passwd file isn't corrupted anymore, my
> master.passwd file is also fine.
>
> Does anyone know what is wrong?
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> -Eric
>
>
>
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--

-------------------------------------------------------

-- 
=================================================================
Beech Rintoul - Network Administrator   -   akbeech@anchoragerescue.org
Anchorage Gospel Rescue Mission
P.O. Box 230510
Anchorage, AK  99523-0510
=================================================================


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